I will share some wisdom I've gathered over my years of simplifying. With this comes much humor. Enjoy!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Purge Time, Folks!

So the tree is down. The other holiday decorations are tucked away snug in their storage containers. What to do with all of the new things we received as gifts? Well, assuming that they fit and are wanted items, we need to find space for them. This is definitely a challenge. Here come a lot of my rules that I have written about in the past. Let's start with the one thing in, one thing out rule. This is as simple as it gets. Did you get a new sweater? Let go of one. A new game? Give up one that your family has played to death and is bored with. Not rocket science.

Next, let's do some reycling. We all have too many magazines, newspapers, general paper clutter. The season forces us to stay inside more. Baby it's cold outside! Read the articles you have been wanting to. If the article is super great and worthy of sharing, scan it and email to friends and family. Paper be gone. Do you really need all of those boxes in the basement? Ok, keep the t.v. box and the boxes for small appliances that have warranties. Beyond that, no need. But what if I need to ship a gift to someone? Please read on.

Make a radical change in your gift giving. Gift consumables only. This may seem harder than it really is. Did you know that it is possible the purchase a virtual gift card that the receiver is emailed? Amazing stuff! My other favorites are coffee, yummy smelling candles, lotions and potions and of course food. Almost always the containers that these items come in are recyclable. Leave as small of a footprint on the earth as possible.

Your momentum has been jump started. Keep going. No need to hoard. Get wild and give up more than you receive. It feels good. It's cathartic. And in the mean time, let me be the little voice in your head that says, do you need it? Do you love it? Use this to head off future accumulation of stuff that you will eventually need to get rid of. And with the money that you save you can do wonders. That will be the topic of next week's blog. Stay tuned.